Femme et Fleur

Chic Hatter Thrives in Industrial Brooklyn
I think that it is clear to readers of Femme et Fleur that I love hats. For some years I worked in business near Union Square in New York City. This is where and when I discovered the Lola millinery shop, and where I purchased her hats -- and was mightily tempted to purchase -- more of her hats. For instance, I remember fondly a little, black-straw number trimmed with lily of the valley ....

Lola at her work table.

Today I'd like to take you inside the Bushwick, Brooklyn studio of hatter, Lola Ehrlich, as she and her staff of 20 work to preserve and celebrate the craft of millinery and the artisinal, hand-made hat.

The spacious, sunny studio surrounded by windows

with a panoramic view of Manhattan.

Lola was born in Holland, but moved to France when she was a baby. Growing up, she spoke Dutch to her mother and French to her father. Today she speaks English like a French aunt peppered with the accent of a Dutch uncle.

Lola examining two straw fedoras with a creative feather trim
from her Spring 2013 line

In 1999, while still at my day job, I enrolled in the millinery program at the Fashion Institute of Technology and completed the Certificate of Competency in Millinery Techniques. At FIT, we were fortunate to have milliner Lola Ehrlich as a guest speaker. Lola told us about her first store on St. Mark's Place in New York which she started in 1989. She began on a shoestring and got her friends to help her decorate the space like a Parisian millinery shop. She had only 6 hats for sale that first day and sold them all. She had to scramble to make more, since Vogue picked up on her right away.

This is the Lola showroom for buyers within her studio.

The mid-century modern furniture was found on eBay.

The showroom for buyers on a raised platform.
Foreign buyers love to take the L train to the
far reaches of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

When I retired from business, I asked Lola if I could intern for her. I worked for her for several months, trimming hats, making feather facinators and shopping for supplies in the millinery district. I loved it.

Lola's little millinery shop in the East Village has today evolved into a worldwide business making 16,000 hats a year -- all by hand. Her large, sunny studio with a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline is in a neighborhood of low-rise factory buildings interspersed with small, row houses that is rapidly gentrifying as a hip neighborhood.

The door to Lola's Bushwick studio.

In addition to the Lola line, there is John, the men's hat line.

Lola hats may be found in these stores (among others):
Anthropologie, USA, Bergdorf Goodman, New York, Browns, London,
Dressterior, Tokyo, Easton Pearson, Brisbane, Fred Seagal, Los Angeles,
L'Eclaireur, Paris, Merci, Paris, Opening Ceremony, NY, Tokyo,
Paul Smith, NY, Tokyo, Tomorrowland, Tokyo, Tsum, Moscow.

Arianna making a proper muslin pattern for a hat.

Pretty colors and bright, warm notes

punctuate these samples for the Spring 2013.

Lola's inspiration board for her Spring line features pictures of the 60's French pop "ye-ye" singer, Sylvie Vartan. Sylvie's straw-blond hair and her sunny, floral parasol frame her pretty face. Other images pick out warm pinks, blues, oranges and lemon yellows. You can just feel the warmth of the South of France.

Sylvie goes to Mexico and meets artist,
Frida Kahlo, an exotic beauty.

A chart aids in assembling this hat.

It shows the number of rows for each color.

I love the way Lola has the blue feathers going every which way on the
open-weave straw. The fat stitches on the brim
allow for more color. Quirky, hip and chic define the brand.

Felt bodies for Fall/Winter await sizing.

The blocking process: a felt "body" is steamed to make it

malleable, then blocked over a wood hat block to shape the hat.

Lola's collection of hat blocks.

Almost all of the hat-making process is done by hand.
Excellent sewing skills are imperative. And you have to be quick about it.
You can't be making knots like an art student.

A selection of threads for sewing on sweatbands and trims.

Ribbons held in common gutters (like you use on your roofs), an
idea from Martha Stewart.

When Lola had her studio in the millinery district in Manhattan, on 8th Avenue and 38th Street, it was easy to walk to the stores selling ribbons, feathers and veiling. Now that she is in Brooklyn, someone must make the trip to Manhattan several times a week to shop for trims. Meanwhile, New York's millinery suppliers are dwindling, and Lola buys many items on line.

Blocked hats await finishing.

The well-organized studio is a bee hive of activity.

Lola discusses the height of a crown with

one of her employees. She is an exacting boss -- as she must be.

Victoria trims a hat.

The John line of men's hats sit on a workbench salvaged from a company that makes library ladders located across the street from Lola's loft. One day Lola noticed that they were putting great, old ladders in a dumpster. So she got some people to help her haul them up to her loft where they now serve to display hats. By the way, Lola's husband's name is John. Simplicity in branding: Lola and John.

Finding unique artifacts in dumpsters is one of the perks of inhabiting

an industrial space. I call them urban natural resources.
This ladder has a new lease on life now.

The John showroom in the Lola loft.

Lola collects second-hand books.
Here she puts them to good use to display
a natty John hat. The wearer might be
Robin Hood in the City.

A Lola hat is both classic and hip with a dollop of French chic.
It's all in the details.
A grosgrain ribbon bow sports a small buckle on these
animal-print felt fedoras from the Lola fall-winter line.

Vibrant colors punctuate Lola hats.
A bouquet of cobalt-blue feathers on a worker's table.

Hats from the Lola archive.

I adore this filmy pink wide-brimmed garden-party chapeau.
Grace Kelly might have worn it in
The Philadelphia Story.

Lola has started a line of paper gift items called Padegachi with her friend, Muriel, above.
They are making paper tote bags, gift wrap and stationery all with dots printed on newspapers.
The line will launch in stylish shops like Merci in Paris in January.
"Padegachi" is a play on the French "pas de gâchis"
which means "NO WASTE!"

A surfeit of creativity bubbles over to fun gift
items for buyers.

An artist friend of Lola's did these drawings for a comic-strip newspaper
which was given to buyers. She liked the drawings so much that
she put some on a tee shirt (above.)

This is the view from the studio looking toward Manhattan.
It was a rainy day so we could not see the skyline very well.
Domage.

An elegant little conference nook in the studio.

A poster in the studio. I will soon be
on the Riviera in Roquebrune.

After my tour of the studio, Lola and I went outside to look at the murals near her building. An area building owner named Joseph Ficalora has organized artists from around the world to paint murals on buildings in what is known as Bushwick Five Points.

Since the days in the early 70s, when Richard and I and a small group of artists pioneered the Olde City manufacturing-loft section of Philadelphia, I have always loved urban, industrial buildings. Picasso keeps an eye on the hood.

This four-eyed blue man is my favorite.

A trompe-d'oeil grocery on a parking garage.

Murals on the ladder company building.

Lola et moi. Merci, Lola!

A bientôt!

See Lola's website here.

A Marriage of Art & Luxe

On view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, is the art of a non-American. In fact, the artist is Japanese. Perhaps, because in the 60s and 70s, Yayoi Kusama was a glittering star of the avant-garde art world in New York City, she now qualifies to have her work at the Whitney. Or perhaps the juxtaposition of her art, and the luxury brand, Louis Vuitton, is too alluring to ignore.

She, and her work, are intense, compulsive, intricate, sexual, slightly psychotic and fashionable. If you doubt the fashion angle, trot yourself over to the corner of 57th and 5th Avenue to the Louis Vuitton store to experience the windows replete with polka dots and little replicas of Kusama. Venture inside to find a Kusama-Marc Jacobs collaboration at a counter displaying handbags, jewelry and shoes. Marc Jacobs has said he admires her "endless energy".

The Vuitton store gone dotty with Kusama dots.

A window at Louis Vuitton with little Kusama's parachuting from the sky.

Yayoi Kusama is 83 years of age. Since 1977 she has been living in a hospital in Japan. She works in a studio across the road from the hospital. She is one of Japan's most famous artists and has been working since the 1940s on painting, sculpture, drawing, collage and large-scale installations.

A Kusama mannequin carrying a handbag which is for sale inside.

A collaborative installation with Louis Vuitton in their store.

Kusama-World at Vuitton

Oh dear. Eloise has escaped from the Plaza across the street.

Note her diminutive Vuitton handbag.

The Vuitton store reflected in a Bergdorf Goodman window.

Last Sunday I visited the Whitney with Richard and our friends, Jeff and Liz. I was dotted with a Tucker pant and a blue Tucker blouse. This is the lobby of the Whitney where they had hung huge, red and white polka dot balloons from the ceiling. Pictures of the exhibition are forbidden.

The Danny Meyer restaurant, Untitled, on the lower level of the Whitney.

A woman wearing Kusama-inspired attire waiting in line for the show.

Richard's sock, waiting in line for the show.

A Japanese tourist took this picture in the gallery

and insisted on emailing it to me.
Richard was dotty too in a Coton Doux shirt.

Les deux artistes.

The Kusama After-Party

After seeing the Kusama exhibit, we thought a dinner of Japanese food would be apt. Our party of four taxied to 13th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, to savor the delectables at Miyagi, a quiet neighborhood restaurant.

We have been going to Miyagi for years and

know the chef and the wait staff well.

Our friend, artist Jeff Russell, contemplates

the sushi and sashimi platter.

Liz Russell, about to sample the red-bean

and green-tea ice cream parfait.

I have a part-time job delivering take-out for Miyagi.

A lovely photo of a lovely couple.

Two suspicious lurkers on 13th Street.

Both are wearing Coton Doux shirts from France!

What's Rei Kawakubo up to?

I am feeling hopelessly thematic today, so it's off to Comme des Garçons in Chelsea to check out the latest dreamscape from Rei Kawakubo, the visionary behind the brand.